Hello from potential owner

[roadkingfl]

Hello All, We are currently looking at a Momentum 380 TH at Lazydays in Florida.

Two things concerned us which is why we have not pulled the trigger. They are:

1.)Two axles on a large heavy trailer. Seems marginal at best.

2.)Not that critical. Name recognition, we had never heard of Momentum or Grand design.

So here we are, looking for input from proud owners (or not) of Momentum's and/or other Grand Design products.

Thanks for your input,

A. A. (Jake)

 

[rv_guru]

Two things concerned us which is why we have not pulled the trigger. They are:

1.)Two axles on a large heavy trailer. Seems marginal at best.

2.)Not that critical. Name recognition, we had never heard of Momentum or Grand design.

Hey Jake!
I can't address your concerns as an owner, but I can as a dealer for Grand Design.

1) Two axles, IMO, is a huge benefit to the Momentum. While most manufacturers give 3 axles (5,500 - 7,000lb rating), the Momentum has two 8,000lb axles. This gives a heavier suspension than most and also allows for 17.5" Aluminum Wheels w/H-Rated Tires. That is a much better grade tire that the traditional 16". Along with the 8,000lb axles, you get the CorrectTrack Axle Alignment System and the Equa-Flex Suspension. After towing our stock 385TH and 380TH, I honestly don't believe there is a better towing toy hauler on the market.

2) While name recognition is still not there, the quality and service after the sell is. There isn't a company out there that will take better care of you than Grand Design will. They just introduced the new Owner's Pledge. Check that out here: http://www.rvbusiness.com/2014/10/grand-design-rv-implementing-owners-pledge-2/

Hope this info helps. I'm sure some owners will chime in too..

 

[Sandi]

Hello All, We are currently looking at a Momentum 380 TH at Lazydays in Florida.

Two things concerned us which is why we have not pulled the trigger. They are:

1.)Two axles on a large heavy trailer. Seems marginal at best.

2.)Not that critical. Name recognition, we had never heard of Momentum or Grand design.

So here we are, looking for input from proud owners (or not) of Momentum's and/or other Grand Design products.

Thanks for your input,

A. A. (Jake)

Well I don't know a blessed thing about axles, but I can tell you what it is like to own a Grand Design. We have had our 369RL since last Dec. and I can't imagine owning anything else! We went into a lot of different products on the market and kept coming back to GD. Nothing else compared! We feel that their customer service and caring about customer issues after the sale should be enough reason to purchase. The owners are great people--we met them at the rally. They sat down with all of us and really wanted opinions and answers from us. They continue to strive for customer satisfaction and not particularly market share. They are building a company with life long customers in mind!
IMHO you won't be sorry! That being said-they are complete homes that we throw on the back of a truck and move over every kind of road condition imaginable. There will be issues with any manufacturer that you purchase. The difference is how that company handles it!!
Good luck and Happy camping!!

 

[huntr70]

You should order a Momentum if you are worried about 2 axles.

They have caved in to the theory that 3 is better, and all new Momentum "large" models coming off the line will have 3- 7000lb axles.

Most people can't comprehend the theory, and GD felt they were losing the market....

 

[thompsons 369rl]

Hello All, We are currently looking at a Momentum 380 TH at Lazydays in Florida.

Two things concerned us which is why we have not pulled the trigger. They are:

1.)Two axles on a large heavy trailer. Seems marginal at best.

2.)Not that critical. Name recognition, we had never heard of Momentum or Grand design.

So here we are, looking for input from proud owners (or not) of Momentum's and/or other Grand Design products.

Thanks for your input,

A. A. (Jake)

On the axel concern, with 2 8000 lb axels, (I think the new ones have 3 7000 lb which is not necessarily better. More is not always better IMO) the MOST they would see is 16000 provided the rig is not loaded to more than the maximum GVWR of 19500. Under normal conditions, the weight on the axels would be WELL within the limits. As far as the name thing.......Grand Design builds a fine quality product. What sets them apart is their customer service which IMO is the best in the industry.

Andy

 

[gordofuchs]

I have my opinions on Grand Design and weight capacity of axels. That is something which I will leave for others to discuss. What I can offer is an opinion on how hard it is to manipulate a tri axel vs a tandem trailer into and out of a tight space. For the past 25 years, I have been towing and retrieving boats and their trailers in a variety of situations. Several years ago, a friend bought a boat on a tri axel, which I towed. It was much harder to back into tight spaces, specifically due to the increase in the tires scrubbing sideways. If you are serious about buying a tri axel, you may want to pull one first and do some tight turns on dry pavement.

Gordofuchs

 

[Phansen404]

We chose Grand Design because we were able to meet Marc at one of the RV shows in Michigan and after talking to him about different things, went back the next year and saw that some of our suggestions had been adopted. Also, at the second show, we were able to meet Don, one of the owners of Grand Design and had a nice chat with him. Has anyone ever seen an owner of any other RV manufacturer let alone talking with them? Their attention to detail and their customers is beyond everyone else.

 

[Kamper]

I don't own a Toy Hauler but I can tell you that GD's customer service and dedication is beyond belief. We have had our Solitude 369RL since Sept. 2013 and will never own another brand than GD. They are growing like crazy and becoming a well know company. I have three friends that have seen ours and bought them one in the last 9 months. I also have another friend headed to the dealer where we purchased ours to look at them this weekend. We purchased ours from RV World of Georgia and their customer service has been great also. I do know that the dealer plays a big part of the influence on how well customer service goes. The nice thing is you can contact GD directly and work with them on issues that can't get resolved through a dealer. Can't say enough good things about Grand Design. Good luck on your choice and hope you many years of happy camping.

 

[Steve and Cill]

Welcome to the forum Jake! I can't speak to the issue of 2 or 3 axels on a toy hauler, but I can tell you that the majority of Grand Design owners are very happy with their purchase and more than pleased with the customer service that Grand Design provides.

Good luck with your search for a Toy Hauler.

Steve

 

[2hams]

Welcome to the forum Jake. Although we can't comment on the TH, we are among the 'cheerleaders' who own the Grand Design product. When we were shopping, the Reflection was the only thing I found that fit the weight and length limits and had a floorplan that worked. Access to the fridge was critical for us. I too was concerned about a brand new company. Since we definitely wanted to change the 15" tires to 16" LT tires, I sent an email question via the Grand Design website. I had a response the next day from the Reflection product manager that the tires would fit. We traveled to see a unit, and measured, and the tires wouldn't fit. I sent another email to Grand Design, and within 3 days they had their supplier make the change so the tires fit on all models, and offered to work with our dealer to ensure we had the change. Between that and comments folks had made after taking the factory tour, my concerns lessened. So far we have spent about 115 nights and been nearly 7000 miles in our Reflection, and are very happy with our choice.

Like any brand, there are some issues and things that need fixing. It would be nice if everything were perfect, but things just don't work that way. That said, Grand Design customer support has been outstanding. We are fortunate to have a good dealer, but many of the issues I have read about on the forum can be attributed to the dealer not doing any PDI and not stepping up for warranty work. I've also seen many cases on the forum where one of the Grand Design company owners has gone to bat by calling the dealer to get things worked out. Watching the changes in the different models, it is obvious that feedback the company is getting is showing up in little changes in the designs.

Customer support is outstanding. I am amazed at all the posts that talk about 'Grand Design fixed this for us, even though we were out of warranty'. Jerry and his team seem to go the extra mile. We thought we had an electrical problem (turned out it was the campground), and got an email from customer support to call them -- we talked it through on the phone. Janice helps lots of us via this forum.

We attended the inaugural rally in Elkhart this September. The rally was organized by owners like us (thank you Dave and Steve for all your work), and was supported by Grand Design. The factory tour was impressive. Meeting the company owners again reinforced what others have said above. After listening to and speaking with them, I almost felt that I wanted to go to work for them (however, loving retirement won out on that one)!

Best of luck in your research. I'm sure you will get some input on the toyhauler portion of this forum. You'll also get insight by looking at the Tech Support section of the forum.

 

[Scott and Jan]

Agree Grand Designs customer service is excellent! The dealers customer service is very important. I know two people personally that did not have good experiences with Lazydays after the sale, not on Grand Designs, but other brands. Something to consider, especially if you are any distance from dealer. Myltiple long distance trips to fix one thing would get annoying. I'm extremely happy with the service from Tradewinds RV in Ocala. Don't know if thats any closer to you.
Good luck and happy camping!!

 

[roadkingfl]

We live in the Keys...Ocala or Tampa are about the same distance (Ocala 1 hour further or so)...Lazydays has the best pricing, they are giving us a pretty good deal on our trade and new unit...Waiting for our sales person to return from vacation to get final numbers and see when they will get a triple axle 380TH.

Thank you all for the input.

 

[Scott and Jan]

You are welcome. Enjoy your Momentum when you get it!

 

[John & Lisa]

roadkingfl,
We checked out Lazydays. We decided to go back to Palm Beach RV. They are in West Palm and closer to the Keys. Smaller dealer but very personal service. It is family owned and you can deal directly with family members.
Good luck

 

[Scott and Jan]

That is exactly why we deal with Tradewinds. Looked at GD there first, checked with Lazy Days, they did give us quite a bit better price (almost $3,000) on trade difference. Called Tradewinds to see if they could get closer to save travel time on purchase and warranty issues. To my surprise they actually beat Lazydays quote by $100.
Might be worth a try with the Palm Beach dealer, to see if you can save travel time also.
If not, like I posted earlier our friends bad experiences with Lazy days were on other brands. Grand Designs great customer service may make them respond better.